Incubator



Oct. 7, 1930.

J. RECKHARD INCUBATOF Filed June 21. 1928 2 Shea ts-Sheet l In venl'ar':

J. RECKHARD Oct. 7, 1930.

INCUBATOR 2 Shee ts-Sheet 2 Filed June 21, 1928 V O O O O O. O

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I "MW 2%! 5 iYs thoroughly u i e 7 so turning arrangement. f

Patented 7,1930

Jonas RECKH RD, or

Aminmi 'aiekimme 21, 192 Serial no.

This invention has tor "'tsobjcct to" create -an.aut omatic incubator constructed so that the eggs to be hatched need be taken in "the 'handonlyjonce. e space in the apparatus I the adjustable drop of te'n'iperature intheha'tchijng space (about PlOtO'SW C. frofn aboye downward) being designed to ensure the obtentionot maximum c 'cy 2: I I

novelty consists inthat the eggs lyin :ontrays i i'the hatching are continually or" periodically n oved upward; downward I adin ahorizontal'planecn one or several eoavey mso that at the downward movement they come into cooler air-layers and atthe upwa'r'd movement into hotter) air-layers; and 'Ithatat the molveinentin'the horizontal'p'lane .theyare'rotated and brought to hatching. i An'einbodiment of the invention is illustrated, by way of example, in the accompany: i-ng' drawing diagrammatically in seven figures, the devices-"for heating, ventilating and other detai s; of secondary 'in ipo rtance being it-ted. i "Fig, liis alongitu'di'nal section; 2 1' Fig. 2 a side elevation. I

3 a top planyiew showing a small hal Qhing chamber according to the invention. F ig 'e showsinjlongitudinal section. an egg Fig. 5 is a tran'verse section of the tray at right angles tojFig, 4. k

Fig.,6 is atop plan yiew of Fig. 4, also showing the egg turning ledge, and

f "Figj'ishows in'longitudinalsectionan V V with thehatching cover and hatching 'n-po'sition. j" I 'I' I Ina hatchingchamber, accessible through a door f, four rows of conveying batteries a, b, 0 andd' (Figs. 1 and 3) are arranged so that a passageg'is left at the middle, each row consisting of five conveying elements (Figs. ,2 and 3) formed by wheels 1" (drums or discs) and of the corresponding bands 8 (chains,

'1 ropes or strips). The wheels 1' rotatably mounted at certain distances apart are all of accurately the same size, and theirendless bands 8 have carrying surfaces 6 of such form that conveyers are formed, designed'for inov .ing upward and downward the egg-trays h,

"also'have balls, rollersor runner-like' t fbands n I i layers through the "door f into the hatching :RHYNERN, GEBMALTY momanroaj I} 72?. -Each conyeying element, consisting of two upper and two lower wheels i*connected byendless bands 8, "is"intermittently driven inany suitable nianner, notshown, so that theweight oi the charges tobe moved i equal ized as well as possible. Everyconveyingehfzmenta s rotatestin a direction opposite to thedirectionfin which the adjacent elements rotate, and convenient mechanical or electric driyi'ng feeding-or switching arrangements are. provided to stepwise convey over to the next following con veyer the egg-trays -/i,*h which arein the extreme v upper or lower position on one con veyer. Figs. 1 and 3 showtwo moving conveying batteries 0, d ,and'two stationary conveying batteries a, b. The upwardly mo i'ngegg-trays are designated by h andth' descending "egg-trays by 7&1. Narrow ledgesi adapted to be adjusted as regards height and covered with felt or cloth, serve 'thetray has elliptic apertures 0 (Fig. 6) of such dimensions that the eggs, lying in these apertures, project from the lower surface of the bottom-plate of'the tray about'one quarter of their height. On the lower surfaces, ofthe longitudinal bars of the tray frame 'loalls roller's or, as shown, flat metal bands at are arranged the projecting ends of said metal bands beingupwardly curved in order to reduce to a minimum the friction on the supporting surfaces of the conveying elements 1,8, when the trays are moving in the hori} zontal? plane and further, in o rder toequalize slight differences'lof height "between the carrying surfaces 'of adjacent conveyer elements 13s. i

F ig;*7 shows the connection ofan eg "tray h with an upper cover is and alower hatching box 79 of wire gauze which might The operation of the incubator described is comparatively simplek The egg-trays h with the eggs for-hatching are-inserted in chamber and pushed from the passage 9 into the ascending and descending conveyers, first by hand between the carrying surfaces e of two adjacent carriage elements 1", s, for 6X1 ample oflthe batteries a and 0, until these .vice versa in'ithe incubator is preferably about one hour but this time may be regulated by differently setting the transmission gear. The conveyingmechanisms'actinginj transportsthe. lowest trays. -In th scase the the top and bottom portions of each conveyer effect the horizontal movement of the upper most and lowermost trays h and h automatiav I p p I the tray and carries it slowly to the other position shown in dottedlinesl x I cally' in the following manner The ascending conveyers, are intermittently stopped as soon astlie tray]; arrives at the top end the tray being then automatically and slowly pushed from the top end offthe conveyer out of their initial position through the central position 72/, indicated full'lines in Figs. 1 and 3 in thedirection of the arrow-lines into the extremeposition on the other conveyers indicated in dash-lines in Fig.1. The pushing mechanism at the bottom-end ofthe descend ng conveyer acts at the same time on the lowermost tray 72/ in opposite direction (F ig."1) at theright side of thelower end. The uppermostand lowermosttrays on two pairs of conveying elements are therefore pushed at the correct moment from the one coiiveyer onto the otherconveyer, so to sayin circulation.- The conveyers of the batteries 0 and d are imagined as being in movement shortly before thexstoppingythe conveyers in thebatteries 0a and b beingstopped and the upper and lower shifting mechanisms of the same being in operations The dOWnWaIfClly projecting portions of the eggs onthe slowly shifted trays h, h pass over the; adjustable upper and lower turning bars i aiid are ro- All the eggspass tated accordingly. I :1

by the circulating. movement consecutively through all air-layers in p the hatching chamber contiiiual alterna-. tion from the hottest zones andinversely, and

V 'at every intermittentshort stopi'atthe topend and at thebottom. end .theyare turned .by the bars 71 upto the hatching. I 'f For the candling, the egg hiirdIes arere .DLlCVQClTlOID the conveyers and placedfiii the passage 9 of the darkened hatching chamber A Tor in a separate darkroom on lightedfboxes v of corresponding dimensions to be then re- I turned into the conveyers.

chainy running over wheels 00, as shown, in p Fig. 4. This endless chain y has a catch a whichengages the upper edge of the egg-tray and carries it to the other side. Fig. shows the mannerf'iii which the feeding device sprocket wheels 00 engages the lower edge of less conveyers,i neans for intermittently moving said conveyers trays hav ng apertures 1n catch a of the chain y running over I the flJAninoubator, comprising-in combina- "U011 a hatching, chamber, anumber of end-; I

the bottom-plate, each aperture'adapted to hold one egg said trays adaptedfto be mounted on said conve'yers'so that at the downward movement said trayspass through cooler air-layers and at the upward move:

ment through hott-er'airI-layers,means for H shifting the uppermost tray from one con veyer-ba'ndfto the, adjacent conveyer-ba-nd:

and the-lowermost tray from said other con- ,veyer band onto said first mentioned -convey-' er-band in thehorizontal direction, andfa device for turning the eggs in said shifted trays duringthe horizontal movement-"of saidtrays. l

2. Inthe'incubatorspecified in claim 1 m the device'for turning the eggs consisting of c two turningbars one at the upper end and. I

one at the lower end between every two' adacent'conveyers,g so that; when the upper most and lowermost trays are being shifted,-

- the eggs in thesameare turned when passing over the corresponding turning bars.

. An incubator as specified in claim comprisingin combination with! the eggtrays a covering tray adaptedto be placed on the egg-tray, a hatching box adapted to be placed under said egg-t-ray, and "spring clamps for connecting ,said -"covering-tray egg-tray and hatching box with one another to forma hatching tray.

; JULIUS ,RECKHARD.

; As soon as the first harge of eggsis ripe f hatchi ig cover1 7a and'hatching boxes 37 e it are placedlon the correspondingtrays," as shown in Fig. 7, the trays and box-"connected spi in grclamps or other means. 1 name hatching trays composed, in this manner are too-' h-ighufor thei normal intervals between the-supportingsurfaces e of --the,conveying f-bands's; they have to be inserted into other pon've'yers v'vithout turning bars and having In testimony whereof I affix my signature. I v I 

